News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-05-19

is the cooks, then, too" And I hated
:the great cattle in the yard, the smell OF
the fEothing pals of milk, the click OF
the stanchions, the cheese-making, the
butter packing-everythin that be-
longed to all the dull round of the
farm duties. I went about to see the
work done, and said word to the maids
here, the men there and went and
sat down by my kindling autumn fire,
and felt that if | had to live here forever,
/ mad better die and be done with it. l
! had rather die and be done with it any
way, if [ was never to see Mark any
more but then that was no new feel
ing.
There We're furious storms that win
ter. The snow fell as [ never remem-
bered it before The drifts seemed to
wall us in from all the world. F'A living
tomb, used to murmur. " I wish it
we're tomb indeed, and [ in my last
Sleep" At twenty, one can be so very
miserable and at thirty, if one lives so
long, one can be so prOfane as to laugh
at it.
Sometimes Bryan and Thomas brought
word of the outside regions, of the way
people up-river were sleigh-riding over
the tops of fences, of the immense snow
fall in the mountains, and the fears of
what would happen from it in the spring
if there should be an early thaw. And
[ remembered some words that Mark
used to quote from play he had seen,
"When this snow melteth there shall
come a flood" [ didn't care how many
foods came.
And so, with storm after storm, the
winter wore away, Jane and Maria at
their housekeeping tasks, and l busy
with my rug making, hooking strips of
woollen cloth through coffee-bags, not
because the house was not full of them,
but because I had nothing better to do.
For couldn't read if I tried, my eyes
swan, and / could not make out word
of what it was all about And people
went and came like shadows and the
days had grown short, and now they
grew long, and what did it all matter to
me?
March had come, but without a sign
of the winters breaking and then at
last April loitered on, and April suns
began to do their work and gradually
the drifts of snow in the lanes and in
the fields began to settle, and to lessen
and melt and disappear. And Bryan
and Thomas had to talk of the brooding
hens, and watch for the breaking up of
the river, and discuss the chance of the
early rye and the new calves and the
hiring of the spring hands; and it was
all emptiness. And one day it began to
snow, and the snow turned to rain, and
it rained that day and rained in rivers,
and it rained the next day, and it rained
y ho1 a1
week, that bade fair to end only in
deluge. And ON Saturday the sun came
out warm !; and when 1 looked, the Gro
cuses bloomed under the windows, and
Thomas said it was very like the May
flowers were opening in the woods, if
anybody could get to them for the
roads all being under water, although
the river was still locked in solid ice
from shore to shore. And in the late
afternoon of the second day of this same
sweet sunshine and south wind, as we
sat there, Jane and I, Maria ran in and
said there was water in the cellar, as
much as six inches.
"That is nothing" said /. 81 should |
think there would be, after such a melt
ing of snow and such raining of tor
rents"
"It'smore likelyit's the land sucBingup
the river, miss, said Maria. "The rivers
raging full under its ice coat, ] IshOuldn't
wonder, and is letting itself out through
the land" And as she spoke there
came great shock and thrill, rumble,
a roar, and a mighty burst of sound.
"Great mercy, miss!" cried Jane,
cts the ice cracking and rending from
shore to shore. Inever heard the like
before, many springs as I've lived beside
it, and before she had done speaking
the sound came again-the sound of
great guns, the trembling of an earth
quake.
"It is an earthquake" said I. "It
must be. But earthquakes up here
don't amount to anything"
"That's no earthquake" cried Jane.
And then We sat there an hour or more,
looking out on the river, and listening
to the sounds, and wondering, and tell
ing stories of earthquakes and hardships
and what not, curdling our blood as we
talked. And at last Thomas came in; he
had been down the lane to the highway,
and q person who had come from up
country had told him that the freshet
was ON the river, and the high water
had carried away Ford's Mills, a dozen
miles above us.
"But how can it do that 2" said I
&C How can there be freshet where it's
all ice?"
"Just because it's all ice, miss" said
Thomas. "The streams are full up
country, and the frozen river down here
is giving the water no outlet. Half the
country between here and thereu be
afloat before morning. And then came
the dull roar and rumble, the schock,
the thrill, the explosion once more.
"Why, this is terrible, said 1. cit
seems as if elemental things were at
work; as if the earth was splitting and
opening" And while we waited and
as one after another of the
great explosions came, the door opened |
so quickly as to make us start, and Mrs.
Sawyer ran in, her face as white as
ashes.
ga messenger has just gone galloping
by, " she gasped. "My husband met
him. He says the dam at the falls has
been carried away, and the Mayor of
Fallstown has sent word by him to the
Mayor of Harborbar to look out for his
bridges"
"And the explosions" said Bryan,
joining us, for we were all looking out
now, in the late twilight. at the long
0locS door onaDiOu IN tho rivnr abOva